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amey
If I may open this discussion up a bit, I don't think these are examples of people not knowing the English language, rather subs making mistakes in a high-pressure environment that values speed and volume above all else.
Yes, a good sub should spot them (although you do post some spurious examples, Oliver) but what is expected of a good sub these days is much more than was expected 20 years ago. Not to mention the fact that so much online content goes live without even being properly subbed by anyone.
Furthermore, orthographic distinctions between homophones are annoying for most and rarely serve a purpose other than marking the writer out as someone who's learned a set of rules. Yes, that's important for a media outlet because it can demonstrate that it hires well educated, diligent people, but there's no moral or scientific argument for things to be spelled a certain way. It just reflects the linguistic circumstances of how words came to be in our language and the decisions of early dictionary makers.
I feel that this thread is supposed to be a damning dossier of evidence of a supposed decline in - or even death of - the English language, when that's really not happening at all.